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Bikeability - What's That

Increased transition of person transport from automobiles to bicycles is generally regarded as gain for society, most profoundly in terms of reduced emission and enhanced public health. However, the mode-share of cycling have decreased in recent years, leading to the conclusion by the Danish Government, that the conditions for cycling must be enhanced to increase the use of the bicycle for transportation (Regeringen et al 2009). This research project departs from this conclusion and focuses on the preconditions for cycling; the possible effects of changes of the urban environment and cycling infrastructure; and methodologies for assessment of changes to existing bicycling networks based on micro-level spatially explicit data. This way the strategic focus of the project is how to enhance bike-ability of urban areas. The project will investigate, analyze and model cycling behaviour and -motivation. A number of data collection- and analysis methods will be taken into use, ranging from GIS based modelling and agent based simulation, over national surveys, to case studies and qualitative approaches based on interviews and logbooks. Analyses will be applied on various scales from national over neighbourhoods to individual cyclists. The achieved knowledge and the developed methods will be applicable to Danish urban and transport planning. Focus will be put on the anticipated effects on bike-ability of (a) social, cultural and demographic changes of the urban population; (b) changes in the urban structure (population density, amount and quality of bicycle tracks, location of facilities); (c) changes of bicycle infrastructure (new paths, bridges); and (d) changes to the route attributes (traffic light, separation of bicycle lanes). It is expected that the project's results will be transferrable to other regions of the World where a need to enhance conditions for bicyclists is realized.